Waste diversion is a big deal. Here's a simple way of better recycling your tree in San Diego. What is your community doing to green up the holidays? What are you doing?
![Post-Christmas recycling]( "Post-Christmas recycling")
Residents quick to use free Christmas tree recycling programs
He quickly undid the strap that held the pine in place, then tossed the tree into the growing pile of former Christmas conifers. There were about 12 at the time. Half an hour later, there were at least 20.
The lot is part of the city of San Diego’s Christmas Tree Recycling Program, which is scheduled to run through Jan. 23. Residents can drop off their pines for free at 16 locations and the city will transport them to Miramar Landfill, where they’re ground into mulch and compost for public use.
Similar programs are being offered across the county, and waste-management companies are providing curbside pickup in certain areas as long as residents meet designated requirements.
In San Diego city, officials said the Mission Bay site that Scholes visited is one of the most popular drop-off locations each year.
Scholes said he has been coming to that lot for about six years because it’s close to his house. He usually drops off his tree on the first weekend after Christmas, but with Christmas falling on Sunday this year, he got Monday off as a work holiday and was able to recycle his pine on Boxing Day. He bought the tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so it was getting dry.
“I don’t know what else you’d do with a tree,” Scholes said. “(This service) is great.”
Andre Melancon said this was his third year dropping off his tree at the same lot. He said last year, he kept his pine until the end of the program — and the lot had a “mountain” of discarded trees by then.
He said this year he was trying to “get it over with” instead of waiting.
Tim Cleator of Ocean Beach said he has availed of the city’s service for about eight years.
“It’s an easy way to dispose of the trees, and it’s helping the environment as well,” Cleator said after reaching the Mission Bay lot.
Like others interviewed Monday morning and afternoon at the site, Cleator said he got rid of his tree not because he was fed up with the Christmas spirit. Practical reasons motivated him: a desire to not procrastinate and the knowledge that he would need to return to work the next day.
Kenneth Prue III, recycling program manager for the city, said Monday after a news conference at the Miramar Landfill that San Diego’s annual Christmas Tree Recycling Program helps the city toward reaching its waste-diversion goals.
On Monday, the landfill itself had about 400 trees piled up before noon. Prue said those pines mostly came from retail lots that had excess, unsold inventory. He also said it would take machines about 30 minutes to grind through that stack.
He said that it then takes three weeks for the grindings to become mulch and 10 for them to become compost. Residents can pick up two cubic yards, or about a pick up truck bed’s worth, of free compost from the landfill.
Nearby, City Councilman Chris Cate said the city recycled roughly 155,000 Christmas trees — weighing a total of about 1,100 tons — last year.
“All of this is an effort to extend the life of the landfill and save taxpayers money,” Cate said. “We’re doing what we can to divert material that could be recycled.”
Cate said organic material makes up about 20 percent of what’s in the landfill.
He encouraged residents to check with their neighbors, especially the elderly, to see if they need help disposing of their Christmas trees.
To qualify for recycling, the trees must have their stands removed and be stripped of ornaments, lights and tinsel.
Residents whose waste-removal service includes yard-waste collection are eligible for curbside pickup of their Christmas trees. They need to cut the trees into sections no longer than 4 feet, then place those pieces into their yard-waste bins.
For people who lack curbside service and can’t bring their trees to the drop-off lots, businesses like Piney Christmas Trees will do it on their behalf — for $30 to $100, depending on the size of the tree. The company dropped off some of its clients’ trees Monday at the Mission Bay lot.
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